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1527 104 “ Ga Y&seys* 
1530 12 s 9% * A + 


Other sizes are made to order 


Library supplies of all kinds 





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TEXTILES 


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APRIL 14 to MAY 3, 1925 
_ Free daily 10 A. M. to 6 P. M. 
Sunday 2 to 6 P. M. 


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Weaving Demonstration 
4to5P.M. 


BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART 
- MOUNT VERNON PLACE, 101 W. MONUMENT ST. 
46-1925-10 


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The Baltimore Museum of. Art was incorporated to 
‘encourage and promote the. study and enjoyment of © 
the fine and the industrial arts and to aid in the appli- — 
cation of art to manufacture and to practical life.” _ 


The Museum was opened February 22, 1923, in the 
Garrett House which had been lent for a limited time. — 
The building has since been purchased by a group of 
the Trustees in order that the Museum may remain in — 
its present headquarters pending erection by the City 


of a permanent building, in accordance with the popular — 


vote authorizing the sale of bonds for the erection of a 
structure to house the Baltimore Museum of Art. 
There have been forty-five exhibitions with attend- 
ance of nearly 80,000. Teachers and pupils, clubs of — 
men and women have met frequently to hear lectures 
and talks in the galleries. Exhibitions are lent to nine 
centers in high schools, settlements and club houses. Fy 
The work is maintained chiefly by gifts and mem- 
bership. Annual dues are $10, $25 and $100; a single 
payment of $250 or more creates of Life Membership. © 


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VELVET PRAYER RUG 


early XVII Century 
Lent by Duveen Bros. 


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OLD 
TEXTILES 


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APRIL 14 to MAY 3, 1925 
Free daily 10 A. M. to 6 P.M. 
Sunday 2 to 6 P. M. 


Weaving Demonstration 
4to5P.M. 







BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART 
MOUNT VERNON PLACE, 101 W. MONUMENT ST. 
46-1925-10 





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SISATITIT 


LENDERS 


The Trustees of the Baltimore Museum of Art 
extend cordial thanks to those who have so kindly lent 
objects for this exhibition. AII lenders are Baltimoreans 
unless otherwise noted. Much of the success of the 
exhibit is due to the expert advice of Dr. R. M. Rief- 


stahl, lecturer at New York ee Reen 
iss Alice W. 
rs. Edward S. Bene 


Carvalho Bros., New York 
Dr. Claribel Gane 
Miss Etta Cone 
Mrs. E. R. C. Crummer 
Miss Kate N. Doggett 
Duveen Bros., New York 

+P. W. French & Co., New York 
Miss Margaret Haydock 
P. Jackson Higgs, New York 
Miss Sarah Ireland 
Miss Charlotte M. Jamieson 
Mrs. H. S. Jennings 
Dikran Khan Kelektan, New York 
Mr. & Mrs. Julian Clarence Levi, New York 
Mrs. Charles W. D. Ligon 
Malcolm Lowenstein 
Mrs. J. Marsh Matthews 
Misses Mechem 
Miss Eleanor Merrell, New York 
Mrs. L. A. Tenia: 
Miss Frances Morris, New York 
Mrs. Wilfred Pict 
Mr. and Mrs. Sumner Parker 
Miss Helen M. Simonton 
Mrs. J. M. Steele 
Misses M. L. and E. B. Steuart 
Mrs. Fred H. Taft 
Miss Elizabeth Titzel, New York 
Mrs. Albert Weil 
Mrs. W. Winchester White 
Miss Elizabeth Jarvis Winn 
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Holmes Wrenn 


lf 5 Je- 





DAMASCUS HANGING 
Late XVI Century 
Lent by D. K. Kelekian 


A LOAN EXHIBITION OF 
HISTORIC TEXTILE FABRICS 


BY R. M. Rierstaut, New York UNIVERSITY 


This collection of textiles is not, does not aim to be, 
all inclusive. It would be impossible to give, by means 
of two hundred examples, a complete history of the art 
of weaving of all times and all countries. Much that 
is beautiful and significant must be omitted. The person 
interested in the textile art of the Far East will find 
little here. The person interested in modern fabrics, 
many of which deserve a place beside the fine fabrics of 
the past, will also be disappointed. All that has been 
attempted is a bare outline, by means of examples, of 
the main steps in the development of European textile 
art. A few Oriental (Near Eastern) fabrics have been 
included, chiefly because of their great influence on the 
weaves of the West. 


WOVEN FABRICS 


A textile fabric consists of warp and weft. The 
warp is formed by threads stretched parallel to each 
other on a loom like the strings of a harp. Other threads 
interwoven by means of a shuttle through the warp, 
form the weft. In the simplest type of weave, the plain 
cloth weave or “binding”’ as it is called in technical 
language, the weft goes all the way through the field 
of the warps and back again, alternately over and 
under the single warps, as in darning. But ina tapestry 
weave, the wefts do not go all the way through the 
field of the warps. A weft of one color is intertwined 
back and forth over a part of the field; then a weft of 
another color is introduced and intertwined back and 
forth over another part of the field as the pattern 
demands, and so on until the field is entirely covered 
with interlocked spots of varicolored thread forming a 
design. 


“olf 7h Je 





CLOTH OF SILVER HANGING 
Indian XVII Century 
Lent by D. K. Kelekian 


Coptic Woven Fabrics 


Almost the earliest fabrics existing are the so- 
called “‘Coptic’”’ fabrics, of which the present exhibition 
contains a representative series. These weavings, though 
found in Egyptian tombs of the fourth to the seventh 
century A. D. may be called European, for, as similar 
fabrics pictured on mosaics in Ravenna, Rome and 
Constantinople show, they are examples of the materials 
used during the late Roman, or rather the early Byzan- 
tine period, all over the Mediterranean world. The 
discovery of these Byzantine fabrics some forty years 
ago caused a great sensation among scholars, who soon 
recognized their importance in the history of textile in 
the Western world. 


But more important for us than the history of 
these early fabrics are their designs. It seems to me 
that this group of textiles offers one of the finest lessons 
that can be had in simplicity of design and color com- 
bination. Many persons are inclined to think that 
design the best which shows the most skilful rendering 
of many details, which show three-dimensionality and 
the most realistic tmterpretation of light and shade. 
From this point of view the French Louis XIV textiles 
are the finest in design of any in this exhibition. But 
the “Coptic” textiles are based on an entirely different 
conception of beauty, an Oriental conception. ‘Their 
designs are flat surface ornaments, which have no in- 
terest in realism, do not aim, as a Chinese critic said 
of Western art, to put “‘the three dimensions where 
they are not.”’ Flowers and plants, the entire stock of 
classic and old Oriental motifs, amorini, flower urns, 
men on horseback, animals and birds in Opposite rep- 
resentation, dancers, and geometric designs are woven 
Into gay, clear and simple ornaments that tell their story 
with no more pretension to logic than there Is in a 
meandering Arabian Night’s tale. It ts difficult to 
arrive at a real understanding of the beauty of these 
stmple designs through the eye alone. ‘They almost 
demand the sketching pencil of the student. 


“2 9 |e 


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Medieval 


Medieval textiles are rare. In this exhibition you 
will find but few to illustrate the story of the gradual 
rise of the textile industry in Europe. That story Is 
one of the most interesting chapters of the economic 
history of the west; for textiles are and always have 
been a barometer of the industrial energy and prosperity 
of a people. 


Europe, emerging from the Dark Ages, found itself 
with two great capitals, one at the extreme East, one 
at the extreme West. There were many minor capitals, 
but not a single one of these cities was of really great 
Importance as a center of trade, art or civilization. The 
two great centers were Constantinople, the capital of 
the Eastern Roman Empire, and Cordova, the capital 
of the Omayyade Caliphate of Arab Spain. For cen- 
turies, the small amount of precious silk weaves used 
by Christian Europe were supplied by Constantinople. 
Only gradually, from the twelfth century on, trade and 
an attendant prosperity came to the Italian cities 
Palermo, Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, Venice. With increasing 
prosperity there rose in Italy a textile industry of simple 
character, with medallion patterns closely following the 
heraldic designs of Byzantine fabrics. A final impetus 
was given to the growing trade of Italy by the Crusades. 
The Italians were shippers for the Crusaders. Italtans 
and Byzantines were rivals in the Eastern trade. In 
1204 A. D. the allied Venetians and Crusaders sacked 
the city of Constantinople. Byzantine trade never 
recovered from that blow, and the Italian city republics 
became the chief traders of the Mediterranean and the 
distributors of Oriental merchandise in Europe. So it 
is that the Italian textiles of the thirteenth and the 
fourteenth centuries show, in addition to Byzantine In- 
spiration, the influence of the textile art of the Near 
East, 


~of 11 Je 





GENOESE VELVET 
Late XVII Century 
Lent by P. W. French & Co. 


The Renaissance in Italy 


Toward the end of the thirteenth century, Near 
Eastern textiles themselves underwent a great change. 
With the overthrow of the Sung dynasty in China in 
1280, following the conquest of Bagdad by Hulagu mn 
1258, the Mongols connected the Mediterranean with 
the Yellow Sea and opened the West to Chinese influence. 
The tntroduction of Chinese textile designs into Europe 
helped to accomplish the “Joosening up” of textile 
patterns which had already been begun under the in- 
fluence of the Near East. The earliest dated Chinese 
fabric that has so far been discovered in Europe is of 
the year 1304 (part of it is now in the Metropolitan 
Museum, New York). From about that time on, 
Chinese motifs, such as rapidly moving phoentxes and 
“kyl” animals, curved stems with attached peony 
flowers, appear in Italian textiles manufactured mainly 
in Lucca and Venice. In the present exhibition is one 
fine specimen of the Lucca ‘“‘Chinoiseries” of the four- 
teenth century. 

These brocades though beautiful, are of simple 
technique. A really high technical achievement was 
reached in another type of fabric, that of velvet weaving. 
The Venetian velvets of the fifteenth century are master- 
pieces of skill and of beauty. Though the Venetian 
late Gothic pomegranate velvets show in their detail a 
revival of the classic acanthus, they remained “‘Gothic’”’ 
until deep into the sixteenth century. Until then they 
do not employ any of the motifs of the Renaissance, 
such as the classic urns, the “grotesque” motifs, etc. 
They enjoyed an extraordinary popularity, both as 
garments and as wall-hangings. They appear very often . 
In paintings of the French, Burgundian and German 
schools of the period; indeed they are so frequently de- 
picted in Burgundian paintings, that scholars long 
thought them to be of Flemish origin. In the end 
however, the Renaissance style of Florence triumphed 
and, about 1540, the pomegranate velvets disappeared. 
Technically, they remain the masterpieces of European 
textile art. 


J 13 Je 








PERSIAN VELVET 


sss 


Jackson Hi 


Early XVII Century 


Lent by P 


Two specimens in the present exhibition, the frag- 
ment with the delicate Tudor rose and pomegranate 
design, and the gorgeous velvet cloth of gold cope, bear 
witness of their quality. These two pieces represent 
the two main types of design developed in Italy mn the 
second half of the fifteenth century. The manufacture 
of similar velvets continued during the entire fifteenth 
and the sixteenth century. 


The Renaissance designs bring In an entire new 
stock of motifs, taken from the decorations of classic 
architecture. The acanthus spiral, the classic urn, 
grotesque satyr heads, female and male caryatids, 
dolphins and birds growing out of acanthus spirals, are 
among the most frequent. But the foundation of the 
design—ogives with floral ornaments tn the centers—is 
carried over from the previous age. 


Persia and Turkey 


The most gorgeous weaves of the second half of 
the sixteenth century were, without doubt, executed in 
Persia and Turkey. The figured velvets of Persia, 
which obtained an extraordinary richness of polychrome, 
by the introduction of supplementary colored warp pile 
threads into certain sections of the design, the rich 
Persian cloths of gold and silver, and the thick weaves 
of Broussa, in Turkey, which intertwined layer after 
layer of silk wefts with resplendent metal threads, were 
far superior in technique and at least equal in beauty of 
design to anything produced during the Renaissance 
period in Europe. 


of 15 Ie 


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Late Renaissance in Europe. 


The late Renaissance, in the process of gradual 
transformation into the Baroque, introduces new motifs, 
such as semi-naturalistic flowers, consistent with the 
Baroque trend toward realism. It is at this period that 
the final separation of “‘dress-goods” and ‘ ‘draperies’ 
takes place. The great churches and the lofty “‘salont”’ 
of Renaissance palaces still demand as hangings fabrics 
with large repeats. On the other hand, the “‘Spanish 
fashion” in dress, with its closely tailored bodices and 
puffed sleeves, requires fabrics with very small designs. 
So the period produces on the one hand the small and 
charming designs of cut and uncut velvet on satin 
ground and the striking damasks, brocatelles and Genoese 
velvets of huger and huger repeats. 


Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, Italy 
begins to feel the result of the cutting off of her life 
force—the Eastern trade—by the Portuguese, who had 
found the sea-route to India around the Cape of Good 
Hope. The old route, India-Alexandria-Venice-Augs- 
burg-the Netherlands, 1s replaced by the new route 
India-Cape of Good Hope-Lisbon-Antwerp, which en- 
riches the countries of the Atlantic sea-board of Europe 
instead of those of the Mediterranean. Before long the 
trade with the Americas develops to add to that en- 
richment. And successively Portugal, Spain, the Span- 
ish Netherlands, Holland, England, and France rise to 
prosperity. After 1650 trade, industry and finance are 
on the decline in Italy and France with Lyons, Tours 
and Paris as centers, takes the lead of the Italian textile 
cities. 


French Designs 


In French hands, the draw-loom is perfected. With 
its perfection, brocading, the intertwining of additional 
colored wefts in limited sections of the warp, develops 
almost infinite possibilities. Designs of fifteen and 
eighteen brocaded hues against a delicately damasked 
background are no rarity. The technique ts particularly 


“of 17 Je 


favorable to the development of the naturalistic flower 
patterns demanded by a Baroque taste now at Its 
height. Naturalistic flower designs had formerly been 
worked out in the borders of Flemish tapestries. They 
now riot over silk weaves. The aim of the textile 
designer is a pérfection of reality, with contrasts of 
light and shadow with three-dimensional depth. Every- 
thing that is round and bulging is dear to the designer 
of the Louis XIV period—pumpkins, pomegranates, 
apples, grapes, peonies, cabbage leaves, all boldly mod- 
eled as if in the round, all proclaiming the skill of the 
weaver. Technical masterpieces are produced in France 
during this period, but as a rule the designs are character- 
ized by a certain pompous moroseness, relieved only 
occasionally by a capricious touch of “Chinoiserie,” or 
the glitter of silver and gold threads. 


After the death of the ‘‘Rot Soleil,”’ in whose latter 
years there was but little sunshine, the Regency brings 
in a gay revival. Delicate pastel shades, blues, pinks, 
and celadon greens tend to replace the stuffy purples 
and browns of the Louis XIV period. Gay rose garlands 
intertwined with lace ribbons replace the vegetables and 
cabbage-like roses. The “Chinoiserie” comes fully into 
its own and textile designs depict a paradise in which 
the French and the Chinese are charmingly mingled, a 
paradise peopled by philosophers who, in the love for 
flowers and wine, do not disdain the eternal feminine. 
It is the period of the delightful textile compositions of 
Philippe de Ia Salle (Lyons, 1723-1803). | 


The Roman ruins of Pompeii, discovered in 1749, 
inspire a new classical revival. The radical classical 
revolution of the brothers Adam begins in England in 
about 1760. In France, the Louis XVI style, while 
reducing and simplifying the size of the patterns and 
introducing vertical stripes, is only a slight transfor- 
mation of the Louis XV. A radical change, such as 
that introduced by the Adams into England, comes into 
French textiles only with the neo-classicism of the 
Directoire period. 


“of 18 Je 








*“*AMERICA’’ DETAIL OF ‘“‘LES QUATRES CONTINENTS”’ 
Toile de Jouy, French, 1782 
Lent by Miss Eleanor Merrell 


PRINTED FABRICS 


It was at about this period that the secret of textile 
printing was finally revealed to the West. From the 
early Middle Ages to the late seventeenth century, 
Europe knew only rather primitive textile printing 
processes. The principal among these was that of 
wood-block printing with pigments. In this process the 
design is carved in relief on the block. Then the raised 
part of the block is inked with color and the color is 
stamped on the cloth. The colormg matter used for 
this type of printing Is a pigment mixed with oil, resin, 
varnish or albumen. Since this pigment does not per- 
vade the fibre of the fabric, but merely adheres to it, 
it is liable, however fast the color, to be rubbed off in 
the process of washing. The East, especially India, knew 
other and better processes of textile printing by which 
the pattern could be dyed into the fabric, the dye per- 
meating the fibre in such a way that the color could not 
be washed out and could be destroyed only with the 
cloth itself. Though analagous processes of dyeing were 
known in Europe, they were used only for plain cloth 
dyeing and never for producing patterns. Dyed patterns 
were the secret and the monopoly of the East. 


Among the main processes employed by the Indian 
textile printers was, first, the “‘resist’’ or “reserve” 
process. In this process the pattern is printed with 
wood blocks or painted on a fabric, not in color, but in 
a “resist”? such as wax or a mixture of glue and flour. 
Then the cloth is steeped in a cold dye, say indigo. The 
patterned parts, covered by the resist, of course do not 

“‘take”’ the dye, and when the resist is washed or boiled 
out, the pattern appears white on blue. This is the 
technique of “‘batiks.”’ The process 1s obviously possible 
only with cold dye. 


In the second process of the Indian textile printers, 
the mordant process, boiling dyes are used. Certain 
dyes wash out in water unless they are fixed to the 
fabric by a mordant. A mordant is simply a chemical 
which, in combination with the dye produces throughout 





CHINTZ 
Portugese XVIII Century 
Lent by Carvalho Bros. 


the fibre a chemical combination of brilliant color that 
is not soluble in water. The Indians, instead of steeping 
the whole cloth in mordant, printed or painted the 
mordant in a pattern on the cloth . Then the cloth was 
dipped in the hot dye, taken out and washed. After 
the washing, the parts of the cloth that had been im- 
pregnated with mordant appeared in a pattern of bril- 
liant fast color, elsewhere the dye had readily washed 
out, leaving the cloth in its original whiteness. 

These processes were absolutely unknown in Europe 
when beginning with the early sixteenth century, Por- 
tuguese, Dutch and English traders imported into 
gavope ““pintados”’ “(painted cotton cloths) or “‘chintz- 

(the Indian word for “polychrome’’) in. which the 
various Indian techniques were combined to produce a 
most colorful effect. These hangings became the rage 
in the fashionable world, where they were used for 
hangings and spreads as well as for garments, and their 
vogue brought considerable wealth to India, whose 
craftsmen alone knew the secret of their manufacture. 
From the beginning the West endeavored to obtain 
possession of the secret. The Dutch painter Pieter 
Coeck van Aelst who went to Constantinople in 1533 to 
study dyeing processes for a Brussels tapestry weaver, 
is said to have brought the art of the indigo resist print 
to Holland. However that may be, Holland was un- 
doubtedly the first country of Europe to gain possession 
of the Indian chintz processes. English, Germans, 
Swiss and French in turn learned the secret. Soon a 
growing cotton and linen printing industry put fear into 
the hearts of the silk manufacturers. As early as the 
late seventeenth century, European governments pro- 
hibited the importation of Indian chintzes in order to 
protect native industries; later, for the sake of old- 
established silk industries, they prohibited the manu- 
facture of chintzes in Europe. But all the laws proved 
ineffective and were finally repealed. The French law 
was repealed in 1759 and immediately textile printing 
developed tremendously. In 1760 the famous Oberkampf 
established his workshop mn Jouy-en-Josas, in the 


“lf 23 Je 


Brévre valley, near Paris and began the manufacture of 
printed fabrics. Oberkampf was the first to employ to 
any great extent European designs for printed fabrics. 
Up to his time European chintzes had depended almost 
entirely on Oriental designs such as the tree of life, 
floral trees, etc. Only the German makers of blue and 
white resist prints had introduced biblical scenes, views 
of the celestial Jerusalem and other quaint peasant 
motifs into their designs. Oberkampf, however, received 
his patterns from a “modern” artist of the period— 
Jean Baptiste Huet (1740-1811) who employed in his 
designs rustic scenes, mythological compositions, “‘scénes 
galantes”’ and later neo-classic motifs. 

The detail required for these subtle compositions 
could not have been rendered with the rather clumsy 
blocks carved out of wood. Oberkampf introduced in- 
stead engraved copper plates, such as are used for 
modern etchings or dry-points. Technical progress fol- 
lowed upon technical progress. Wooden roller presses, 
operating on the same principle as modern rotary print- 
Ing presses, quickened the work tremendously. ‘Toward 
1794 Oberkampf replaced the wooden rollers by engraved 
copper rollers. At about the same time the Indian 
mordant process was perfected. Instead of painting or 
printing the mordant on the cloth the entire cloth was 
steeped in the mordant and the design was then printed 
on the cloth in color. The union between dye and mor- 
dant was achieved by passing the cloth through hot 
steam after the printing. Again the process of textile 
printing was quickened and cheapened. Soon, as a 
result of long effort, Europe succeeded in applying steam 
power to the spinning and weaving of cotton, and textile 
printing was transformed from a cottage industry to a 
factory industry. Today, the East, its secret lost to 
Europe, imports most of its printed textiles from the 
West. Its own industry has dwindled almost to nothing. 

The present exhibition offers a brief survey of the 
cotton printing industry. It includes a few East Indian 
printed cottons of characteristic design. A group of 
Portuguese chintzes shows how Portuguese textile 


2] DA Ie- 


printers interpreted these designs. Later, Portuguese 
chintzes take over European designs, French and Georg- 
ian, and reproduce them in naive variations. What are 
generally known as Portuguese chintzes are frequently, 
however, English chintzes made for export, often striped 
and of particularly gay polychrome, according to the 
Southern taste. 

The charming works of Oberkampf and of the 
English mills working in his manner are of particular 
interest to Americans, not only because the subjects 
often depict the struggle for liberty of the United States 
but because such chintzes were much sought after for 
use in homes of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth 
century. The English chintzes, too, with their delightful 
flower and bird designs were a charming part of the 
early American setting. Many of the old designs are 
reproduced by the modern textile industry and new 
designs of scarcely less merit are being turned out each 
year. Chintzes, on account of their gaiety and their 
simplicity and their practicality, are particularly fitted 
to the modern American interior. ne 

A great deal has been said about the lack of origin- 
ality in the textiles of the nineteenth and the twentieth 
century. The weavers and designers of the past hundred 
years have had enormous tasks to master. The Jacquard 
loom, invented in 1805, changed weaving from a hand 
industry to a machine industry. Even greater than the 
task of the modern weaver is the task of the modern 
designer. While the designer of the past had a com- 
paratively limited number of motifs to use as inspiration, 
the modern facility of photography and easy travel has 
brought within reach of the designer textiles of all 
countries, so far as they exist, of all times. Those he 
cannot actually see are available through books and 
reproductions. He has an almost overwhelming richness 
of motifs from which he must choose wisely. In ac- 
cordance with the demands of the public he makes many 
reproductions—excellent reproductions. But he also 
turns out new designs. Just as the designers of the 
past chose old motifs from among the scanty stock at 


“of 25 Je 


their disposal and put them together in new combinations 
so the modern designer adapts old motifs from his 
enormous stock to new designs fitted to the times. The 
great technical possibilities of the Jacquard loom and 
the range of materials at his command, make possible 
a much greater variety of effect than the weavers of 
the past could hope to obtain. Looked at closely, our 
time is not as barren as some would have us think. 


of 26 Je- 


AMERICAN WEAVING 
AND 
COSTUMES 





THE HAND LOOM 


By Marcaret E. HaypocKk 


__ The loom of colonial days was massive and simple 
In construction, designed to produce several types of 
textiles both durable and beautiful. Approximately 
seven feet high, it includes in its framework not only 
the parts essential for its operation but the seat for the 
weaver. The loom was hand hewn and hand made as 
well as the fabric woven upon it. The loom being used 
in this exhibition dates from about 1700 to 1750. 


Operations are practically the same as in either the 
simpler primitive types or the later more complex ma- 
chines, namely:—the raising and lowering alternately, 
sets of warp threads to form the “‘sheds’’, throwing the 
shuttle, and driving the weft home adjusting it with 
the batten; the means of obtaining results, however, 
and materials used differ. Fastened with wooden pegs 
there is scarcely any metal, only that used in supporting 
the batten and for securing the cloth beam. ‘Threads 
of warp and weft were never brought in contact with 
metal; helds or heddles were made of string causing no 
wear on the threads as they were drawn up and down 
in the process of shedding; likewise the reed or comb 
was made of bamboo or whalebone so that the threads 
through all the processes of weaving were very kindly 
handled, probably accounting for the longer life of the 
fabrics of that day and generation. | 


A weaver’s equipment then included many other 
articles such as spinning wheels, for flax and wool; the 
quill for winding bobbins and spools; a clock wheel for 
skeining the yarn; swifts to hold the skeins; spool rack 
and warping bars; accessories to the loom, numerous 
shuttles, temples or tenterhooks for regulating the width 
of cloth and so forth. 


Many processes requiring skill and patience were 
required before the actual work of weaving was begun. 


2] 29 Je 





OLD COSTUMES 


The costumes of a century or more ago speak so 
clearly of the time and of the materials made and used 
that a few articles have been included in this exhibition. 


Colonial governors from the middle of the 17th 
century lived ina style similar to that in Europe, es- 
pecially in England and France. Their ladies and those 
of the many other wealthy families imported their silks, 
chiefly from France, just as they secured the best bricks 
in Holland and wall-papers in England. 


The exhibition includes the wedding vest and coat 
of a Spanish gentleman who was Envoy Extraordinary 
Minister Plenipotentiary from that country to the 
United States shortly after the Declaration of Independ- 
ance. ‘These interesting garments have been lent by 
great grand-daughters. 


Several pieces of heavy brocaded silk from dresses 
worn by Martha Washington, strangely enough all 
yellow, have been Ient by descendants of the Custis 
family 

Thus, with the aid of a few pieces of mahogany 
furniture that also date from the latter part of the 18th 
century, we are able to reconstruct the way people lived 
and dressed in this country during that interesting 
period. 


2 31 


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GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 
UTICA 
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